Ohio House leaders move to repeal Common Core

Ohio will repeal the state's use of national Common Core educational standards and require schools to implement totally new standards if Ohio House leaders get their way.

With the blessing of the speaker of the house, Speaker Pro Tempore Matt Huffman, R-Lima, on Monday introduced a bill to repeal the standards that are being implemented at Ohio schools next month.

House leaders are fast-tracking the bill by putting it in a committee chaired by Huffman instead of in the usual education committee and hoping for a vote in the full House when the Legislature returns the second week of November.

"The leadership in the House supports the repeal of these standards, with the substitution of other high standards, to get the federal government out of the business of education in Ohio," Huffman told reporters. "This issue has turned. Americans now view this as an intrusion by the federal government on the most important thing to them: the education of their children. ... This is beginning to prove to be another disaster by the federal government."

Common Core takes effect for the first time this fall, so its effect on students' education is still hypothetical. Still, standardizing education nationally fails to take into account the unique needs and culture of each region, Huffman said.

Despite House leaders' support for repealing Common Core, their chamber won't have the final say. The bill also would have to pass the Ohio Senate and then escape a veto from Republican Gov. John Kasich, who has supported Common Core in the past. Neither of those steps appears likely at this point.

Even if the proposal were to become law, it's unclear how the state would treat courses and tests that students will begin to take this fall — nor what standards Ohio would adopt instead of Common Core.

Details such as those have yet to be drafted in the bill, said Huffman and his joint sponsor, conservative Rep. Andy Thompson, R-Marietta.

The move to start the repeal process marks a victory for tea party groups that have led the fight against Ohio's participation in Common Core, citing concerns about privacy and federal control over education.

House Republicans' effort to repeal the standards, as the tea party wants, potentially sets up GOP Senate members or Kasich for a showdown with conservatives over the standards.

In supporting Common Core, many Republicans, including Kasich, have cited the need for higher standards in Ohio. Plus, supporters say, the Legislature addressed concerns over the program this spring.

Lawmakers protected schools and teachers from consequences for poor performance on new tests in the 2014-15 school year; named a school district's board as the "sole authority" in choosing curriculum; and prohibited the state from collecting identifying information about a student during testing.

Most Ohio school districts and administrators have embraced the Common Core standards, and most educators appreciate Common Core's push to delve more deeply into fewer topics, said John Charlton, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education, which is part of the Kasich administration.

"We know we need to do a better job in Ohio of educating kids and raising the bar," he said.

Plus, Charlton said, changing education standards in the middle of a school year would be "very challenging."

Ohio's State Board of Education, whose members are either elected by Ohioans or appointed by the governor, approved the use of Common Core in 2010.

Under the new legislation, lawmakers would decide which standards the state would use and would want to "bless" future changes to state standards by the board of education, Thompson said.

Ohio should adopt standards that are tested and proven, Thompson said, but still higher than Ohio's outgoing benchmarks. Massachusetts' pre-Common Core standards could be an option, he said.

Even with the support of leaders of the majority Republican caucus, the repeal effort might lack the 50 votes it would need to pass the full House.

"I would be shocked if it got the necessary support," said Rep. Gerald Stebelton, R-Lancaster.

Stebelton, a Common Core supporter, chairs the House education committee — the committee the House leaders are avoiding in choosing Huffman's Rules and Reference committee instead for the hearings for the repeal bill.

Stebelton said he has been reading through the Common Core standards and has yet to find anything he would not want a student to know by the end of the school year.

"People are upset about it, and that's how I won," Brinkman said at the time.

GOP leaders, who were stunned by the loss, agreed.

Stautberg had said he neither opposed nor supported Common Core.

"That sucker is a problem. I think we should have addressed it," House Speaker Bill Batchelder, R-Medina, said of Common Core after Stautberg's primary loss. "I'm big on voting on things ... to see what the troops would do."